Jenny Hval’s new album The Practice Of Love is out at the end of this week, and today she’s sharing one more preview to follow “Ashes To Ashes” and “High Alice.” New single “Accident,” which is accompanied by the project’s first music video, is as conceptually dense as we’ve come to expect from the Norwegian artist.

Through the lens of deciding to become a parent or not, the song explores questions of what it means to be human. Hval’s refrain, “I was just an accident,” eventually morphs into, “She is an accident.” The video comes from longtime Hval collaborator Zia Anger, who cast her own mother Barbara Anger to perform alongside a series of typed-out communications with Hval. One example: “Dear Jenny, I can no longer do this work. Work with no money, renders my mothers’ labor fruitless. I want to go back. To when I was just an accident.”

Hval and Anger shared a joint statement about the video:

With the release of this video we planned on publishing a dialogue between the two of us. Something that spoke about the kind of work we are doing, and that also referenced the theme of the video — the pairing of production and reproduction.

It’s a given that the product of some artistic work is worthless. You are therefore expected to “mother” it instead of working and being compensated for it. And sometimes this is the best kind of work. Because it doesn’t feel valuable. Because not everybody will like it, or understand it. Because it won’t immediately be sucked up into the capitalist scroll. It has time and space to be conceived of, to sit in utero, to be birthed, to have its umbilical cord cut, and to live, to breathe.

The same is true of our collaboration. We are both seen and heard by each other, and often validated by our responses to each other. However big (with a video) or small (with an email.) Our collaboration validates each other’s right to breathe, to live, to speak. It’s the closest we get to magic.

This dialogue however, felt rushed. We will publish it at a later date. Until then.

Watch below, where you can also find Hval’s itinerary of upcoming The Practice Of Love performances.

TOUR DATES:
09/20-21 – Oslo, NO @ Ultima Festival
09/29 – London, UK @ Milton Court
10/16 – Frankfurt, DE @ Mousonturm
10/30 – Paris, FR @ Centre Pompidou
11/09 – Utrecht, NL @ Le Guess Who? Festival
11/23 – Katowice, PL @ Ars Cameralis Festival

The Practice Of Love is out 9/13 on Sacred Bones. Pre-order it here.